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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set will not become widely available until later this week, however following pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in market worth.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub attracted significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness that costs G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub features level 1 earthbending (arguably the best of the elemental mechanics available). The real boon in its design is an additional effect: Each time you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card could be purchased below $30. Following the early events, yet, the going rate escalated to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains Vivi prices for this little creature? Primarily thanks to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

Upon entering the battlefield, this creature transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it stays in play, those lands generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures on your side that generate mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect would be Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. Yet many creatures that make mana available. This particular druid costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 for two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a very big high-cost creature into play early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly if you keep the pressure on from that point.

When adding an additional hue with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly that generate any color of mana. Another card, this powerful dryad lets you play another terrain each turn plus transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying such as a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives every card you own the power to tap and generate one mana of any color — even each creature under your control.

This card may be OP regarding boosting mana production, however what closes out the game for a deck like this? An often-seen solution is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature in play is able to produce double green if used for mana.

This additional option is a costly, large threat that thrives with many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well in this deck. Her static effect makes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, so those lands generate three green mana.) Her plus ability functions like a proto-earthbend, adding counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes each land you control unbreakable enabling you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left from your library. If you can actually activate this power, it’s pretty much the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have for any kind of green Avatar deck built around the earthbend mechanic. When branching into Gruul colors, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures untap and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has become a popular Commander choice, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the collaboration.